Question of focus: 1.21z or 1.3a as a base?

There are a number of things to think consider.
1) Seems that the near removal of crushing blow did not work out so well. Can this have been fixed by modifying the Ber rune, as was suggested(i forget who...but you get credit)?

2) Was increase in strength requirements too much? If so, was it too easy before? Does anybody want to keep the new boons to strength investment?

3) What about the changes to gems? Like, no like? Any consensus? I think last time there was decent agreement that resists were too easy to obtain, along with damage reduction (both integer and %, as well as integer magic damage reduction). I don't remember the thoughts about absorbs. Do we like now or then more?

4) There are some decent changes to items, and some skills. Some items now get used to level, that weren't before. Some skills needed adjusting up or down. Which should be kept if going with 1.21z?

5) Were boss resists where they should have been, assuming at least some CB nerf?

6) A number of bugs were fixed. I think most evidence on the list I have tried to keep updated has been removed after the last patch.

7) What else needs to really be considered? These were just off the top of my head.

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The reader should not be discouraged if...he does not have the prerequisites to read the prerequisites. P. Halmos

Personally, using 1.3 as a base:

1: CB increased to 3% on a 1 hander and 6% on 2 handers (not available off weapon)
2: bers set at 2% cb
3: holy auras synergys changed to 2*20% syns (instead of 1*20% and 2*10%)
4: Mastery rw's changed to 50% fire damage instead of Oskill
5: MDR availability cut by 1/3
6: armor override on berzerk changed to 100% -5% per hard point (maxed would negate the penalty
7: Maul grants 10% critical +2% per hard point
8: passive pois pierce no longer lowers enemys pois length reduction
9: Pois zons skills damage rescaled: pois jav deals mid damage, plague deals lower damage, pois spray deals highest. Durations on these skills cut by 25%
10: blade of arreat pierces enemys phys res by 10% +2% per hard point
11: necro blades cooldown increased from 25 frames (1 sec) to 63 frames (2.5 seconds)
12: golems base damage increased by 50%
13: spirit wolves damage increased and max number increased to 2+1 per 5 levels
14: dire wolf damage increased and number increased to 3
15: HoW grants 1% dr per hard point
16: SoB grants 1% fire, cold and light absorb by 1% per 2 hard points
17: Necro bone spear damage scaled back by 10%
18: necro bone spirit damage increased by 10%
19: Necro's base attack speed animation increased with wands
20: perfection gains 2% hp per soft level when a 2 handed spear is equipped
21: static field changed to a ring that slows and damages enemys who walk through it
22: rabies tier 5 damage dropped by 15%
23: facets range from 1-6%s instead of 3-6
24: amp values reinstated BUT also increases enemys damage by the same amount
25: enemy lifetap causes lifedrain
26: enemy IM changed to flat returned damage instead of %
27: shields base damage increased by 20%
28: smite damage increased by 5%
29: blessed aim also grants 1% passive lifesteal per level
30: fana also grants 10% critical +2% per hard point (to the user only)
31: elemental set grants +20 Oskill meteor, +20 Oskill glacial spike and +20 Oskill Thunder Storm
32: Confuse is no longer overwritten by other curses (confuse, then amp = enemys dealing more damage and taking more damage from each other = good times)
33: Meteor patch duration reduced by 20%
34: Cobra strike changed - passive -50% + 10% def bonus per level and 1% life/mana steal per level
35: CE timer removed
36: Vengeance AoE size increased to 3 yards
37: Might grants stun
38: blessed hammer ignores undeads resistances
38: FotH ignores demons resistances
39: Multiple sources of Medi on equip removed
40: Crushing blow affix added back in at 2-5%
41: deadly strike affix added at 5-15%
42: templars dropped back to +2 skills
43: topaz craft armor dropped to +1 skills max
44: boss resists remain as they are

Would be my rough wish list.

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24: amp values reinstated BUT also increases enemys damage by the same amount

Ouch

But from reading through the list I like it.

Could we also get that Blessed Aim Perfection shit fixed? Steel posted how to a while ago and it was ignored.

Edit 1: Could we also make firestorm non-castable in bear? Half of the reason the build is so good is because of this.

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Im very much in favor of PureRage's proposed changes, they should rebalance the mod after 1.30a patch.

you would have to remove it from fireclaw synergy then... and add new defensive skill to ele druids.

If psn pierce didn't cut psn length and no other changes were implemented(cloud back?-2500%def on psnstrike?) then psn necs would not exist anymore.
I'd really like too see skele mages damage updated - still it's low even in a solo game - and every summon 1frame ai delay.


btw: "44: boss resists remain as they are" amp or bust

While increasing the timer on the blades is not a bad idea... there's still one thing that bothers me about them. Their monprops give them 50% fire/cold/lightning absorb in hell difficulty (with lesser amounts in the lower difficulties). Even if their cooldown timer's increased they are still going to have incredibly good fire/cold/lightning tanking due to %absorbs not being capped on monsters (all summons have their damage mitigation functions from the monster side).

10: blade of arreat pierces enemys phys res by 10% +2% per hard point
i posted this a while ago everyone hated it lol

18: necro bone spirit damage increased by 10%
spirit needs its missile speed increased or something or the bone orb sam hein uses

23: facets range from 1-6%s instead of 3-6
this would just result in more time farming leo lol, and a lot more useless jewels, and people raging at -1% +1% jewels lmao

or make some new crafting formula to use useless unique jewels this would create

Also IMO shards needs procs removed and changed to some useful stat I.E increse max res 1-3% single res or absorb single element 1-3%. Each shard would have something different. Baals being the best/highest stat
The only cool proc is baal cold nova when hit

Some ideas on my end in response to Kevins.
15: HoW grants 1% dr per hard point
Is this for party or only druid? If it's party buff cool, if not do druids really need that advantage?

16: SoB grants 1% fire, cold and light absorb by 1% per 2 hard points
Same as above.

20: perfection gains 2% hp per soft level when a 2 handed spear is equipped
Don't really see where this is a good idea. Perhaps 1%dr per 2 hard points instead.

23: facets range from 1-6%s instead of 3-6
How about 3-5 instead. Also has side benefit of weakening some op builds a touch without skill tweaks.

24: amp values reinstated BUT also increases enemys damage by the same amount
Kinda like that idea, but when enemy amps, it has same effect as necro amp, correct?

44: boss resists remain as they are

Other possibilities to reduce the op builds without skill tewaks is to reduce +5 dmg on some items. Such as Griff being reduced to +10% max. By cutting back on those area same effect is achieved while going up thru difficulties it works reasonably well. I forsee with tweaks to skills they can become underpowered too quickly.

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"The difference between genius and stupidity is genius has its limits" Albert Einstein

How/SoB: buff for the whole party

Perfection: To offset the reduction in MDR, they are highly dependant on it at the min. translates to around a 60% buff in hp with average gear.

Facets: 3-5% i'd be ok with that too

Amp: no, the formula for the damage boost would be "(stat('energy'.base)>=5)?dm34:0"
(or whatever param columns it uses, i dont remember of the top of my head)

That formula asks, "Is the casters base energy = or higher than 5?" if yes (player) use the same progresion as the pierce, if no (monster), don't increase it.

Nerfing the gear means the builds who depend on that gear just to be half way decent also take a hit. Easier to look at the offending skill alone rather than a vast number of items.

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Wouldn't this make Dev Disease Spray Zons the new OP?

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Disease spray is a clone of charged strike but with poison missiles, Ie. it causes a lot of counters. Also, the duration being dropped on those pois skills.

With 1/3 MDR availability and causing more counters each time they hit + hitting more often. They are gonna be taking alot more damage + a melee char using an ele setup isn't gonna work very well. The reason they are so gg atm is they can aply from a distance while using full caster gear.

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Never exactly ran in and DS a boss so didn't know it'd cause the counters of CS so ok

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not as many as CS i dont think but more than the ranged skills do.

The plague spray on facets is bad for it too. I used to go in and fury with time to proc lr and take a lot of damage from counters due to those stupid facets. (I'll only use pois nova ones on hc now)

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Man I pro zeal the poison immunes in chaos when merc dies and the facets clear trash behind em love em

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I want amp to increase 100% monsters phys dmg. That will completely unbalance thorns...

9: Pois zons skills damage rescaled: pois jav deals mid damage, plague deals lower damage, pois spray deals highest. Durations on these skills cut by 25%

If I'm understanding this, you're talking about plague being the least damaging of the Zons poison skills. I can understand scaling back the damage and making DS deal more but I feel it would result in the same problem psn dagger necros have. Getting close without massive potting. I'm all for adjusting to remove some flavor of the month status, but concerned with going too far with it.

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"The difference between genius and stupidity is genius has its limits" Albert Einstein

if you can't get close without dying, why not use one of thee ranged skills?

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“Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism”

Moncurse needs fixing.
Lower res: it lowers fire/cold/light/psn/mag by hardcoded formula dm56*-1, currently it's broken because par6(max -res) is set to 1. par5/6 must be set to something different like 10/40 and change aurastat calc to par7 and par8(unused?) OR edit moncurse table and set LR to new a curse with par5/6 properly adjusted...
Amplify: hardcoded in 2 locations:
6FD0AADD - Point to stat in ISC.txt - ID 36
6FD0AAE5 - Value it increases/decreases - -100

The most recent version of HU would need to be used as a base for any changes...

10: blade of arreat pierces enemys phys res by 10% +2% per hard point

This change is on or off , cause i can't find it in changelog of test patch.

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Out of darkness, out of mind,
Cast down into the Halls of the Blind.

off, amp was restored to soft point progression so you dont need 2 skills to make an impact.

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I don't have the time to play the test patch now but i am very curious about one thing untill i will install the test patch in one week.If you can tell me how serious it is the damage of a monster who is cursed with amplify damage. If player have 50 % physical damage reduction and monster have been cursed with amplify 60% that means the damage taken by the player is calculated with -10% physical resist?

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Out of darkness, out of mind,
Cast down into the Halls of the Blind.